The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Verbena plant, botanically known as Verbena hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘USBENAS18’.
The new Verbena is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Hikone, Shiga, Japan. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new disease-resistant and high temperature-tolerant Verbena cultivars with semi-upright plant habit and attractive flower coloration.
The new Verbena originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor on May 25, 1999 of an unidentified selection of Verbena hybrida, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Verbena hybrida identified as code number VJS8-4, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar USBENAS18 was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny from the aforementioned cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Bonsall, Calif. on Jun. 10, 2000.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings at Bonsall, Calif., since Jul. 1, 2000, has shown that the unique features of this new Verbena are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.